The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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TO BENJAMIN F. PAPOON. |
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO BENJAMIN F. PAPOON.
Dear Sir Your favor of the 13th ult: was duly
recd. and I thank you for the communication.
It cannot be doubted that the rapid growth of the
individual States in population, wealth and power
must tend to weaken the ties which bind them
together. A like tendency results from the absence
& oblivion of external danger, the most powerful
controul on disuniting propensities, in the parts of a
political community. To these changes in the
condition of the States, impairing the cement of their
Union, are now added the language & zeal which
inculcate an incompatibility of interests between
different Sections of the Country, and an oppression
on the minor, by the major section, which must
engender in the former a resentment amounting to
serious hostility.
Happily these alienating tendencies are not without
counter tendencies, in the complicated frame
of our political system; in the geographical and
so many links & ligaments, thwarting a separation
of them; in the gradual diminution of conflicting
interests between the great Sections of Country,
by a surplus of labour in the agricultural section,
assimilating it to the manufacturing section; or by
such a success of the latter, without obnoxious
aids, as will substitute for the foreign supplies which
have been the occasion of our discords, those internal
interchanges which are beneficial to every section;
and, finally, in the obvious consequences of disunion,
by which the value of Union is to be calculated.
Still the increasing self-confidence felt by the
Members of the Union, the decreasing influence
of apprehensions from without, and the natural
aspirations of talented ambition for new theatres
multiplying the chances of elevation in the lottery of
political life, may require the co-operation of whatever
moral causes may aid in preserving the equilibrium
contemplated by the Theory of our compound
Government. Among these causes may justly be
placed appeals to the love and pride of country;
& few could be made in a form more touching, than
a well-executed picture of the Magical effect of our
National Emblem, in converting the furious passions
of a tumultuous soldiery into an enthusiastic respect
for the free & united people whom it represented.
. . . . . . .
| The writings of James Madison, | |